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The Project

The catalogue raisonné, in hard copy edition, contains several major flaws that make the context of its publication quite problematic. Firstly, these types of books are, for the most part, very expensive and thus their publication becomes prohibitive. Secondly, because of the enormous amount of work and time involved, any such catalogue encounters, upon its publication, a major obstacle – even more so if it’s about a living or recently deceased contemporary artist: due to the art work changing hands (i.e. at auctions), the data becomes rapidly incorrect and the catalogue soon is obsolete. Finally another complaint often formulated against these publications is the presence, at each entry, of multiple cross-references. These can certainly be understood in regard to the space granted by the editor for the inscription of each notice. Nonetheless these abbreviations and codified signs impose on the reader to constantly refer to indexes or lists. Continually hampered by these cross-references, the consultation of this type of book becomes even more cumbersome.

Consequently, the project conceived by Dr. François-Marc Gagnon strives to avoid the obstacles. It is for this reason that Dr. Gagnon has opted to publish for Borduas’ oeuvre, a catalogue raisonné in an electronic format which will be available on the Internet.